Past President and Webmaster Paul Evans takes us on a trip through the Autumn Sky
IAA Public Lecture, 25th September. Dr Mike Simms (UM): “1969; a special year for space rocks (and not just from the Moon)”
Mike is one of Ireland‘s leading meteorite experts, and has given us many fascinating lectures before. This one focuses on 3 very significant meteorite falls which, coincidentally, occurred in the same year as the first retrieved rocks from the Moon. One of those was the famous Bovedy Meteorite, that last one known to fall in N. Ireland. A fascinating talk is to be expected, delivered in Mike’s inimitable style.
Summary of Mike’s talk:
1969 was an auspicious time for rocks from Space. Meteorite falls at Bovedy in Northern Ireland, Allende in Mexico, and Murchison in Australia, all led to breakthroughs in our understanding of the early Solar System. Rocks brought back by Apollos 11 and 12 gave us our first chance to find out if the Moon really was made of cheese looking for more information. And a chance discovery down in Antarctica was to have a fundamental influence on the future of meteoritics for decades to come.
Doors open about 7.15pm. There is free parking available on the campus in the evenings. Admission Free, including light refreshments avondale.uptownjungle.com. We are located in the Bell Theatre, Department of Mathematics and Physics, QUB – details here……
With thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for assistance with this event.
Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building , QUB, 7.30pm
All welcome. Free admission, including light refreshments.
IAA Apollo Celebrations
There is huge interest in the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969 and to this effect the IAA has two exhibitions running featuring memorabilia from the time as well as a talk on the subject by IAA Past president and IFAS Chair Paul Evans.
One exhibition runs over the weekend 6th and 7th July at Portballintrae Village Hall This is open from 10:30 – 16:00 on both days and there will be a talk “Navigation Through the Ages” in the main hall at 15:00 on the Sunday by IAA President Brian Beesley
The other exhibition is currently open and runs until 31st July in the Bangor Carnegie Library
On 18th July at 15:00 Paul Evans will give a talk on the subject “Apollo 11: To the Moon and back half a century ago”. This covers the story, starting in 1944, of why and how they went to the Moon.
NLC Season now in full swing
An excellent display of Noctilucent Clouds was visible from Northern Ireland in the early hours of Tuesday 18th June. As befits the Solar Minimum, this iwas a very high and bright display and an encouraging sign for a good season. This generally runs from the beginning of June until early August. There is some belief that the emission of Greenhouse Gases into the atmosphere is amplifying the displays, paradoically by making the mesosphere colder as less infrared is radiated upwards having been absorbed by Greenhouse Gases.
Keep an eye out to the Northern sky anytime after Sunset and before Sunrise check out air conditioning repair service near me. As the sky darkens theses amazing clouds will make themselves know,
Image Credit: Andy McCrea, Bangor 18th June 2019
IAA Barbeque – Delamont Country Park 3pm
Today's (15th June) Barbeque at Delamon Country Park is ON with weather set to clear – meet by the Main Car Park at 3pm, bring food etc.
Lecture – Weds 4th December 7:30pm – Dr Matt Redman, NUIG. “The shaping of planetary nebulae”
Synopsis: Planetary nebulae often exhibit stunning shapes and intricate features, but it is a long-standing puzzle as to how such a wide range of shapes can arise because the stars from which they form are spherical. Binary companions offer one way to break the symmetry, but there are not enough of them in close orbits to account for the numbers of non-spherical planetary nebulae. Instead, we examine whether exoplanets, engulfed at the end of the stars life, can be responsible for the shaping. The talk will be illustrated with many examples of planetary nebulae, including the intriguing Boomerang Nebula, which is currently the coldest object ever observed in space.
Biography: Dr Matt Redman is Director of the Centre for Astronomy NUI Galway, and is Chair of the Astronomical Sciences Group of Ireland, the professional association for astronomers in Ireland. His research interests are in star formation and star destruction processes. Matt uses radio and millimetre telescope data to look inside star forming molecular clouds, and optical and millimetre data for studying planetary nebulae, novae and supernova remnants. He works at the observational and theory interface, simulating data from telescopes using state of the art computer codes, find the best developer bootcamps. His work has been supported by SFI and IRC grants, an equipment grant for I-LOFAR, and through telescope time awards.
Doors open about 7.15pm. There is free parking available on the campus in the evenings. Admission Free, including light refreshments. We are located in the Bell Theatre, Department of Mathematics and Physics, QUB – details here……
With thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for assistance with this event.
Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building , QUB, 7.30pm
All welcome. Free admission, including light refreshments.
AGM 2019 talk – Paul Evans “Apollo 11 – Achieving the Goal”
Weds 17th April – 45th Annual General Meeting, Apollo 11 short talk and Observatory tour
Wednesday 17th April marks the date of the 45th Annual General Meeting of the Association. The purposes of the meeting are to review the activities of the past year, elect a new Council for the coming year and for the Council to receive feedback from the membership on how they – that’s you – would like to see the Association develop.
This year there will be two additional features to add to the formal business.
Firstly, Past President Paul Evans will bring his Apollo at 50 series of talks up to date with a short talk about Apollo 11 – the mission that achieved President Kennedy’s goal of Landing a Man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.
Secondly, Prof Alan Fitzsimmons will run tours of the Observatory on top of the Physics Building for those interested.
All are welcome, though of course only paid up members are eligible to vote on business matters. Doors open about 7.15pm. There is free parking available on the campus in the evenings. Admission Free, including light refreshments thelockboss. We are located in the Bell Theatre, Department of Mathematics and Physics, QUB – details here……
With thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for assistance with this event.
Lecture: Weds 3rd April – Prof Alan Fitzsimmons – “DART & Hera – Moving an Asteroid”
Over the past few decades, our knowledge of how to handle the threat posed by Near-Earth Objects has increased enormously. Astronomers surveying the sky find over 150 new NEOs per month. We understand the gross characteristics of that population; how many there are, what they are made of, their overall structure and how their orbits change. Now the final stage of threat assessment is under way. In three years time, humanity will test whether it can move a small asteroid for the first time. The NASA DART and ESA Hera missions are the first planetary experiment to significantly change the orbit of a celestial body. This talk will describe the background to the missions, the preparations happening this year, and what we hope to accomplish in 2022–2026.
Prof Alan Fitzsimmons is an astronomer in the QUB Astrophysics Research Centre. His primary research interests are in performing observations of minor bodies in our solar system, comets and asteroids how to find water damage restoration san diego ca. These studies are generally based on observations performed on the UK supported telescopes in the Canary Islands (ING) and Chile ( ESO).
Doors open about 7.15pm. There is free parking available on the campus in the evenings. Admission Free, including light refreshments. We are located in the Bell Theatre, Department of Mathematics and Physics, QUB – details here……
With thanks to the Astrophysics Research Centre, QUB, for assistance with this event.
Bell Lecture Theatre, Physics Building , QUB, 7.30pm
All welcome. Free admission, including light refreshments.
Members’ Night 20th March – The Videos
We held a very successful Members' Night on 20th March, starting off with IAA President Brian Beesley doing the Admin, the Intro and a great talk about Kenneth Edgeworth
Past President and Webmaster Paul Evans talks about Apollos 9 and 10
And finally Terry Moseley talks about his recent trip to the Kennedy Space Center